Why Tim Burton Laughed At Jenna Ortega Before Her Wednesday Audition

In an interview with Wired, Jenna Ortega talked about getting the call to play Wednesday Addams in the new Netflix show simply titled "Wednesday." When director Tim Burton reached out to her to audition for the show, she had to do so virtually, over Zoom, while filming the horror movie "X." The audition came after filming her death scene which required her to have prosthetic wound makeup all over her face. She just finished filming a scene in which she is a corpse when she had to hop on a call with Burton.

Ortega said, "I had stage blood and glycerin sweat in my hair, and a massive cut on my face and had been up for over 24 hours. I got on the Zoom and he actually laughed. It made me laugh ... I thought it was endearing." Obviously, Burton, a master of the macabre, thought it was endearing as well, with the typically stoic director laughing, and ensuring her role in the series.

Ortega noted to Teen Vogue that in everyday real life she has always gotten comparisons to Wednesday Addams so this role seemed very fitting for her. She said she received these comparisons because sometimes people can't tell if she's being serious or sarcastic. She even befuddled Burton on set while filming the show. She said, "I didn't think it was that bad until we were on set sometimes, and Tim might say, 'Oh, that was dark.'" It seems Burton may have met his match in the young Scream Queen, as having the famed director note something as "dark" really means something.